


Don't ask me where all of the pain goes

by dragon_rider



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Reality, F/M, First Meetings, Gen, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-05
Updated: 2013-05-05
Packaged: 2017-12-10 10:33:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/785051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragon_rider/pseuds/dragon_rider
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They meet. Jim is still sort of a jerk, but Nyota focuses on the adorable side of his persistent come-ons at her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't ask me where all of the pain goes

**Author's Note:**

> Betaed by [Disconnect](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Disconnect/).
> 
> Companion piece of [this](http://johnreapergrimm.tumblr.com/post/49634793895/jim-nyota-ar-they-meet-jim-is-still-sort-of-a).

They meet. Jim is still sort of a jerk, but Nyota focuses on the adorable side of his persistent come-ons at her. When Cupcake & Co. come to the rescue, she sends them off by taking Jim's arm and leading him back to her group of friends. It's practical, she tells herself, because he helps with the drinks, and he's still drunk, but his jokes get better, and her friends laugh a lot. Nyota smiles and saves the bit of information the handsome troublemaker involuntarily shares with her by looking absolutely stunned for a second too long when she invites him over. It’s enough for her to start seeing through his façade, enough for her to start looking more closely at his smirks and listening intently to his chuckles and quirks.

She sees a stranded, desperate boy, someone who's so eager for attention he'll take what he can get and getting the bad sort of attention has always been quicker, easier if messier and she hates herself a little, because now she can't leave him like this. She's seen nothing but glimpses of what might lie beneath all those issues (he's smart, at least, and there's no doubt about it because he keeps up with the conversation in all the subjects they approach despite being nothing but a farm boy), but it's enough. She's enthralled, she's interested and she's challenged to get him out of his shell. She wants him to stop denying himself a real life, a life where he wouldn't need to crack a joke every five minutes to make sure people like him and won't leave him so soon, a life where he can smile with something other than playfulness and lust behind it, a life where he can have people who truly care for him, if he dares to stop hiding.

He bristles at the mere mention of joining Starfleet, but his face lights up as soon as she mentions the Enterprise. "I've seen her," he says, voice awed and face tilted slightly downward, "She's beautiful. She'll be a fine ship."

She thinks there's still hope, so she kisses her friends goodbye and waves as she drags Jim out of the place.

He goes willingly and seems equally pleased and surprised she's touching him again, let alone taking him anywhere. "Hey, where are we going? Not that I'm complaining, we can—“

"Don't, Kirk," she huffs, rolls her eyes for good measure and lets him go, "You told me you had a bike. Why don't you take me to that fine lady and we'll see what you'll be missing by keeping your feet on the ground?"

"I do," he blinks, licks his lips for a moment before grabbing his keys from his pockets and walking to a black motorbike parked nearby. "Sure, huh, I'll take you to it." The fact he's so easy to shock should be amusing, but all that Nyota can feel is sadness. It seems like no one sticks around for long enough to do this and she wonders how hard Jim has actually pushed people and how little they cared to keep trying.

He scrunches his nose once they get to it and oh so very slowly extends the keys to her, "Do you, huh, do you know how to—“

She smirks, takes them and rides it. "Of course. _I_ 'll take you to it. And watch your hands."

He shrugs, nonchalant and shameless as he admits. "Okay, okay. I wasn't gonna grope you all that much anyway."

They ride at a mild pace, Jim giving her instructions so she can take the right turns and arrive to where the Enterprise is being built, his hands firm but gentle on her shoulders. He's not pressing all his body against her as she thought he'd do and it's a bit cold with her skirt, but once they get there she's warmed by the way he takes out his jacket and puts it around her as much as the lingering warmth of his body in it.

"She's beautiful," she concedes quietly. She wonders how much time he's spent just watching her, wonders how much more convincing he needs to agree to come with her to the Academy.

"Told you," he smiles, hands in his pockets and face intent as he stares right ahead. She can't decide if it's a sad or resigned smile and it bugs her, but she doesn't push, not yet.

She enjoys the silence, the view, even the company. She measures, guesses and tastes words in her head until she thinks she has the right ones, the ones he needs to hear to move forward and stop stalling once and for all.

"I bet you she couldn't be yours, even if you tried."


End file.
